Paramedics have been forced to wait more than 10 hours outside Greater Manchester hospitals before they can drop off a patient, leaked figures have revealed.

Ambulances have had to wait hours at hospitals across the region in recent weeks as staff struggle to cope with overwhelmed accident and emergency units and people who are well enough to go home but can’t be discharged because of a social care crisis.

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Figures obtained by our sister paper The Mirror reveal patients across the region experienced shocking delays during December. The longest turnaround, the time from the moment the ambulance arrives at hospital, until it can leave to answer another job, was: 10 hours and 13 minutes at Fairfield Hospital in Bury.

But there were also problems at Salford Royal where one crew waited nine hours and 30 minutes; nine hours at the Royal Bolton Hospital, eight hours and 55 minutes at Wythenshawe Hospital, and eight hours at Stepping Hill.

On January 3 this year, it took an ambulance eight hours and 50 minutes to turnaround at North Manchester General.

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It took an ambulance six hours and four minutes on January 1 at North Manchester General, and four hours and 32 minutes at Manchester Royal Infirmary.

On January 7 at the Royal Oldham Hospital, it took an ambulance three hours and 46 minutes to turnaround.

Bosses of Pennine Acute, which run Fairfield Hospital in Bury, North Manchester General and the Royal Oldham said: “We always aim to see and treat patients attending our three emergency departments and urgent care centre as quickly as possible and provide them with the safest and best possible care.

"Like most Trusts across the country, we are finding this a challenge due to the flow of patients in and out of hospitals and the large numbers of admissions of patients, particularly those who are elderly and with complex and chronic health conditions. Patient safety remains our priority and our staff are working extremely hard to triage and treat those with serious conditions, those who require urgent attention, and critically ill patients brought in by ambulance as a priority.

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“We continue to work closely with our local primary care, community care and social care colleagues to speed up treatment, admission and discharge times for our patients. This also involves working closely with our ambulance service colleagues and crews to minimise any handover delays in patients being admitted into the emergency department, treating the critically ill as a priority, whilst ensuring that all patients are safe when waiting to be handed over to the care of our A&E staff.

“For some patients, there are alternatives for less serious or minor problems, including your GP and out-of-hours doctor and primary care support, local community pharmacies and the freephone NHS 111 number. These can all direct you to the most appropriate care quickly and efficiently.”

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Readers have contacted the MEN describing the region's A&Es as chaotic since New Year, with patients on trolleys crowding the corridors and ambulances queueing up outside as paramedics are unable to leave.

One hospital had reportedly seen just 59 percent of patients within four hours in the first ten days of January.

Several senior A&E medics now say this is the 'new norm' and warn it could lead to increased deaths.

An NWAS spokesman said: “We are continuing to see a high demand for our services right across the North West due to a significant increase in the number of Red incidents we are receiving.

“As these are patients in a serious condition that need to go to hospital, this in turn impacts on an increase in activity at hospital emergency departments that can unfortunately result in ambulance crews having to wait longer to handover patients into the care of hospital staff before they are able to get back out on the road to respond to other emergencies.

“We monitor ambulance handover times daily and are working closely with our NHS colleagues and CCGs to address the issue.

“We urge the public to support us by only dialling 999 for life-threatening and potentially life-threatening incidents and to consider alternative pathways of care such as minor injury units, walk-in centres or visiting their GP or pharmacist in the first instance.”

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An ambulance worker based in Manchester, who did not want to be named, said the work is ‘relentless’ and describes the service as ‘hammered’.

He said: “I’ve been in the service over ten years. In that time the demand has increased to the point where most afternoons, right through the early hours, there can be in excess of 80 jobs waiting for an ambulance.

“The worst it used to get was much less than half that.

“I’d say the last six or so years have seen the biggest increase in demand. This has led to longer days without a break, often seven or eight hours or in extreme cases the whole 12 hour shift.

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“At the regular A&E we attend, if there are no hospital beds to put new patients into then the triage staff won’t come and get a brief rundown of the patient’s condition - so often we’re finding that we can wait for several hours only to be told that a patient can go into the waiting room.

“Patient handovers are on corridors busy with other crews and patients, meaning everyone is in earshot of the patient’s presenting condition.”

UNISON, which represents ambulance workers, said a ‘lack of beds’ can lead to staff being tied up at hospitals, and urged the government to pump more cash into the NHS.

Alan Lofthouse, its national ambulance officer, said: “Paramedics want to be out saving lives, not endlessly kicking their heels in hospital corridors.